Keep Your Money Safe

We have a mutual friend who was walking down the street in Nairobi at 7:00 in the evening when he was robbed at gunpoint. Kenyans have a mobile banking system such that their money can be accessed from their cell phones. Our friend was forced to provide login information and was robbed of $400, or about 40,000 Ksh. The lesson to be learned from this frightening crime is, “Keep your money safe”.

And then there is a saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” A fool is a person who is not very smart, in this context, in handling his own money. A person who is not making intelligent decisions about his own money will spend it or give it away, and then he will not have it. ONCE SPENT, IT IS GONE FOREVER, while what has been purchased is temporary.

The first rule of protecting your money is to keep it in a secure account. Security has become a most important task for banks and other organizations whose service is to hold your money for you. But elaborate security systems don’t help much if your account can be accessed with simple login information. Do your part to keep your money secure.

A second important rule of protecting your money is to keep it safe from the people you know. In fact, the rule is “If people know you have money, they will try to get it from you.” While the rule applies to people who would sell you their products or services, it also applies to family and friends. Everyone wants more money than they have, and they will justify asking you to give them some money to meet their needs, if they can think of a reason for you to do that. If you give the money, then the money is gone forever, even with promises to pay it back. In The Richest Man in Babylon, by George Clason, we learn never to put our wealth at risk. Don’t tell anyone you have money, because they will try to get it from you. Giving back 10% is a principle that many would follow, but that principle is not relevant to a discussion about protecting your money.

The third important rule of protecting your money is to keep it safe from yourself. Budgeting your money means determining ahead of time how your income will be spent or allocated. Without budgeting, money is spent in small amounts for things you want in the moment, and the saving of money for future spending or investing is often not remembered in the moment. One of the best ways to protect money from yourself is to put a budgeted amount in an account that you are not able to access quickly, while keeping small amounts available to use immediately when needed.

Keep your money safe, not just from robbers, but also from sellers, friends, family and yourself.

It is what successful people do.